


Taking a Bullet (or a knife)

by JesusCheese



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Airports, Angst, Anxiety, Canon Compliant, Han Jisung | Han-centric, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, Hwang Hyunjin-centric, Injury, Mentioned Kim Woojin, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:02:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26556307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JesusCheese/pseuds/JesusCheese
Summary: Jisung was panicking, the fans were crowding, the members were in a frenzy, and Hyunjin still would not get up from the ground. There was something wrong."He's been stabbed."
Relationships: Han Jisung | Han & Everyone, Hwang Hyunjin/Everyone
Comments: 9
Kudos: 228





	Taking a Bullet (or a knife)

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome! A couple things I'd like to note before you get into this-
> 
> 1) I wrote Woojin as the 'bad guy' here because I feel that his character in the story should reflect the true story of what happened and how his actions have affected both his victim and Stray Kids. If any of you are his fans, I don't want to argue with you in the comments. Please either a, don't read it or b, keep that specific complaint to yourself. 
> 
> 2) Because the whole plot is centered around large social gatherings and an airport, just bear with me and pretend that Covid-19 is not a thing in this story. 
> 
> 3) I love Hyunjin's long blonde hair and I will be very sad when he cuts it. That's all.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Jisung was freaking out.

He’d been on edge for a long, long time with ‘The Woojin situation’ as they liked to call it. As soon as the eldest had left, their world changed drastically. While less confrontational and mentally taxing, the looming threat of the exposure of Woojin’s actions and the repercussions that it would cost them was an astronomical stressor.

And it was selfish to think that their situation mattered when there was a victim out there- maybe many- who had been hurt by the hands of their hyung...well, the man who used to be their hyung.

But it was inevitable that- with Woojin’s association with Stray Kids- any news that got out would be directly correlated with his former group. 

And- like they knew it would- it happened. And it exploded in their face.

While most fans took their sides, trending #eightornone and #supportskz, a small percentage defended Woojin with everything they had, going far enough to even blame Stray Kids for what he did wrong, saying that they’d planned to alienate and exile him all along.

To further escalate the situation, the fans researched deep into the members’ interactions with Woojin and saw what they’d all tried their hardest to keep off camera and off records- none of them got along with him. There were times when he was tolerable, sure, but none of them would stand for his blatant mistreatment of a few of their members, and it made. him. angry. 

Felix, Jisung, and Jeongin received most of that anger. They were the ones least likely to stand up for themselves and therefore very easy targets.

Everyone knew that Jisung would take it the hardest, as he did most other things. He was torn apart when Woojin left but not because he’d miss him...no, he would never /fear/ that. He was terrified that he’d be the target of anger once again.

“Hyung, the fans all know,” he said one day during practice. “We’ve got to be in the airport tomorrow, and the fans all know that I’m the reason he was kicked out.”

“You were /not/ the reason he got kicked out, Sung,” he objected vehemently, tightening his shoelaces. “What he did got him kicked out, and the group is better off because of it. What he did was horrible, and he doesn’t deserve to be a part of Stray Kids.”

“But he’s not in the group now, and people are going to blame me for it.”

“Nobody’s blaming you,” Minho shook his head, reaching out to touch Jisung’s hair and frowning when he dodged it.

“You haven’t seen Twitter, then.”

“You know not to look on Twitter,” Chan scolded. “If you only look at his solo fans, of course you’ll see anger directed at you. That doesn’t mean that everybody thinks that way. They’re just a very vocal, very confused, very small group of people. You’ll be fine.”

“But the airport…They might be there.”

Felix came up from behind him and wrapped his arms around Jisung’s neck, chin on his soft hair. “That’s just your nervous thoughts talking, Sungie. How many of our personal guards will be there?”

Jisung took a minute to think. “Ten with us, four with the car, and...five more in the area.”

“And how strict is the airport security?”

“Nobody past the security check without a plane ticket.”

“And we’re the ones with plane tickets,” Chan reminded him. “VIP, might I add...And on top of the guards, you’ll have us. If- and that’s a big if- somebody tries to get you, we’ll be there to stop it. It’s just an airport. We’ve done this hundreds of times.”

“Right,” he sighed, patting Felix’s hands. “Okay...let’s get to practice.”

“After you,” Changbin said, holding out his arms.

Jisung was an anxious person to begin with. He hated crowds; it would make sense that the recent outbreak of news would put him on edge. A little convincing would do the trick and they’d board their plane without a problem. 

His bad thoughts didn’t mean that there was a bad situation at hand.

…

There were too many fans; in fact, there were so many friends that- for a while- they were stuck in the middle of a 10-man linked-arms body guard circle with grabby fans pushing at the linebacker-esque JYP employees. It was not usually this crowded.

“Have you talked to Woojin?”

“Did you know what he did before he left the group?”

“Jisung, did he hurt you?”

“Don’t let it get to your head,” Chan told him, grabbing Jisung’s wrist and wedging him in between himself and Hyunjin, the boy barely visible under his jacket hood, head stoically bowed, airpods nestled into his ears but playing nothing. They had died a long time ago. He hated crowds almost as much as Jisung; he just wasn’t driven to a panic attack from them.

“Looks like they’re moving,” Jeongin said hopefully as the airport staff played the part of Moses and divided the sea. “I can’t wait to get on the plane...I think that’s the first time I’ve ever said that.”

“I can’t wait to just get into the airport,” Jisung responded nervously, hands clenched around his bag so tightly that his knuckles were a peculiar shade of off-white.

“Just be patient,” Minho told him, patting his hand. 

Soon enough, they got moving towards the door, still battling the crowd of fans but making steady progress. Unfortunately, it looked like there were more inside, and- because of the lack of space- the density was even higher in there. Jisung was sweating bullets. He pulled down his beanie, adjusting his mask and glasses.

“The guard circle won’t fit through the door,” one of the body guards called out as they broke apart with their tree branch arms still open wide to fend off intruders. “We’ll have to send five in front of you and five behind you. We can reform the circle once we’re inside.”

“Sounds good,” Minho confirmed, seeing that Chan was busy keeping an eye on a few who got too close for comfort. They’d only be without side protection for about a twenty-foot walk through the doorway. They’d be fine.

The first two through the door after the bodyguards were Minho and Felix, then Changbin and Jeongin, then Hyunjin and Sungmin, then Jisung and Chan. Five bodyguards were behind the last two, fanning out to hold fans away from the door while the last pair of boys crossed the threshold.

They were almost with the group of five bodyguards when Chan saw the first sign of distress come from Seungmin, his head quickly snapping to the side and mouth opening in surprise. Chan followed his line of vision and saw Hyunjin’s covered and bowed head, his hands shoved into his pockets and eyes downcast.

“Hyunjin!” he barked. “Eyes up!”

Hyunjin either couldn’t hear him or was too stressed to follow directions, but either way- his head did not come up until Seungmin’s hand shot across his line of sight, palm out to stop some predator that was unknown to Chan. Whatever it was, Seungmin looked terrified, and Chan was on the move.

He’d made it half a step before a force collided with Hyunjin, sending him crashing to the ground with wide eyes. In the process, the mask had fallen off his face and his hood had been swiped off, long blonde hair coming free. 

“You’re the reason he’s gone!” she shouted as she sat on top of their brother. When she finally got a look at his face, though, the crazed fan looked just about as surprised as he did, cursing to herself. “You’re not Jisung!”

Hyunjin could only gape at her before she was leaping up with rapid speed and charging for Han- the real Han. Chan was there before she was, getting both hands on her shoulders and shoving her as hard as he could into the row of body guards that were just then catching up to the boys. He normally would never be so rough, especially with a lady, but she obviously intended to cause harm to his family. The bodyguards could deal with her. They caught her easily, holding her small, thrashing body as fans surged in and pulled back all around them.

“Get them back!” the body guards yelled as Chan dragged a gasping Jisung to the center of the group, pressing his forehead to his and holding a hand on his jackrabbit heart.

“You’re okay. We’re all here for your safety. She’s detained.”

“Hyunjin,” he gasped. “Hyunjin.”

“Hey, he's okay, Sung...He just fell.”

“No,” Jisung screamed, face beet red as snot ran down. “He’s wearing my jacket! Hyunjin’s wearing my jacket!”

Chan looked over to where Hyunjin had fallen, seeing Seungmin kneeling by his side, hands cradling the fallen member’s. His eyes were blown open wide, skin pale and lips gasping. Tears ran down the sides of Hyunjin’s face into his hair. Why hadn’t he gotten up? “Seungmin!”

Seungmin whirled around, looking just as terrified as Hyunjin. He shifted to the side and Chan had a good long look at the reason why Hyunjun wasn’t getting up from the ground. A long wooden hilt of a knife stuck out at an angle from his brother’s lower left abdomen, slowly turning Jisung’s grey sweatshirt red.

“He’s been stabbed,” Jeongin whispered, horrified.

They needed to get out of here.

Luckily, it seemed that the guards knew that too. Unluckily, it seemed that- to the guards- ‘they’ included Chan, and no matter how hard he fought to be with Hyunjin- to protect him- he could do nothing as they very nearly took him off his feet and ran with him to one of the private rooms they’d reserved. 

“Let me out!” he roared at the bodyguard stationed inside the door. His name was Dongmyeong; Chan had known him for almost all of his career, but at that moment, it didn’t matter. He was the man standing in between him and Hyunjin. Him and Hyunjin and a crowd of crazy fangirls.

“You know I can’t do that, Chan-ah. Don’t make me feel bad about it.”

“He’s out there bleeding, and you think you can stop me from getting to him?”

“I know I can stop you from getting to him, but I really don’t want to have to. Please.”

“Chan, there’s 9 body guards with him and more on the way,” Changbin said, placing a hand on his shoulder. He leaned closer, lips bushing the leader’s ear. “You’re freaking Jisung out.”

He glanced over to him, wincing as he sobbed into Felix’s shoulder as the other tried to rub his back with some sort of soothing motion to get his lungs into a normal rhythm again. Seungmin was on one of the couches, staring into nothingness as Minho paced, hand on his forehead. Jeongin was in the corner crying softly as to not alert the others of his distress.

He had every right to be distressed.

“We’ll wait here until they come to get us, but we’ve got to cancel our flight. There’s no way we’re leaving now,” Changbin spoke rationally. It was good that at least one of them was doing so. “I’m sure the manager is already on it,” he continued. “Hyunjin’s got to go to the hospital, though, so one of us needs to be there for him. He can’t wake up alone.”

“It needs to be Jisung,” Seungmin said, still holding that thousand-yard-stare in his eyes. “He’s the only other member with a B blood type. Hyunjin’s going to need a transfusion.”

There was silence. Even Jisung had stopped crying.

“You know I’m right,” Seungmin said. “I know you don’t like it, Jisung, but if you don’t, Hyunjin’s going to die, so-”

“Enough,” Chan cut him off forcefully. “We don’t need this right now. The hospital has a blood bank, so even if Jisung can’t donate, Hyunjin will be absolutely fine. The hospital will care for him.”

“No, no I- I should donate. It’ll be better coming from a family member anyways,” Jisung said shakily, standing up. “I’ll do it.”

“Hyung, you know that you’re not actually family, right?” Jeongin sniffled. “It’s not like it’ll help him any more or less than an anonymous donor.”

“Why are you trying to discourage him?” Seungmin spat, standing offensively.

“Because he’s not well! Look at him,” Jeongin sobbed. “Hyunjin just got stabbed for wearing his sweatshirt, and he’s going to go drain his veins as a form of retribution! It’s not right!”

“It’s necessary! They have to throw away blood if it’s old, and there’s /always/ a donor shortage. If Jisung doesn’t donate, they may have to wait for a shipment from a completely different hospital, maybe in a different city. And-”

“I said enough!” Chan roared above the bickering, sending a stern glance to both involved. “All of you, relax and sit down. Hyunjin’s probably in an ambulance right now, so if we want Jisung to donate, he’s got to get to the hospital as well.” He turned to Dongmyeong. “Please...I know that you need to keep us in here, but Hyunjin needs blood more.”

He contemplated it. “And the rest of you won’t leave? I have your word?”

“If Jisung can go to the hospital, the rest of us won’t move a muscle,” Chan swore.

“Come on then, I’ll escort you.” His gaze softened at the way Jisung’s body flinched in response. “By now, the rest of the guards will have cleared away the fans. There’s nothing to see anymore, and the remaining fans won’t get to you...not through me. I promise.”

“Yeah…” He didn’t sound convinced. Nonetheless, he persisted. 

Chan had the utmost respect for Han Jisung.

…

When Chan visited for the first time after the accident, Jisung was sitting in the recliner (perks of being wealthy enough to pay for a VIP hospital room) eating goldfish and watching TV while Hyunjin tried to keep up.

“Knock knock,” he said, causing both of them to look over and smile at him.

“Hyung!” Jisung exclaimed, setting down his crackers and standing, only to brace himself with a strong hold on the table as his eyes went wide. “Whoa…”

“Relax for a minute, Sung, jeez,” Chan scolded lightly, easing him into the chair and putting his goldfish back in his lap. “It’s only been a day since you donated two pints. You’re gonna need to take it slow.”

He turned his attention to Hyunjin, who was smiling a the interaction from his bed. He was pale but looked decently better than the picture Jisung had sent them all of his face /during/ the actual transfusion. “I brought flowers. Cliche, I know…”

“It seems only fitting,” Hyunjin decided. “Jisung gives me two pints of his life fluid, you give me carnations...The next visitor’s really going to have to outdo themselves.”

“Good to know you`’re feeling well enough to still be a jackass,” he chuckled, taking a seat in the folding chair. “How are`you really, though?”

“I’m alright, though I’m sure most of that is the pain medication. I’m ready to get out of here.”

“You were stabbed yesterday.”

“And it missed every vital organ. Essentially, it’s a flesh wound. My doctor likes to tell me all of these stories about people with fourty stab wounds or severed limbs while he’s changing my bandages. It’s his way of making the unlucky feel a little less unlucky than others.”

“If you were really lucky, you wouldn’t be in a hospital bed with stitches holding your stomach together.”

“My skin, not my stomach. Like I said, flesh wound.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Jisung scoffed from across the room. “If I had to stay here overnight, you should stay at least three nights.”

“You had to stay here because you passed out when you saw the blood bags,” Chan laughed. “The rest of the boys had a good laugh at that once they were finished being all worried.”

Jisung managed a chuckle. “When will they get here?”

“In an hour or so...Then we can sign the discharge papers for your release, Sung.” Jisung shrunk into his seat. “She’s in police custody now. There’s no way she’s going to hurt anybody again. You don’t have to be scared.”

“The last time I went out in public, something horrible happened...I don’t know what I’d do if...It’s just not my idea of a perfect homecoming.”

“Well you’re not allowed to hide out in my hospital room for the rest of your life,” Hyunjin told him crossly. “I wish I could leave today and be healed up with some crackers and juice and rest.”

“Well, I mean, if we’re comparing cases here, it’s fair to say that you both just had holes poked in you. In all reality, your injuries aren’t so different at all.”

Hyunjin stared at him with distaste in his eyes, no hint of laughter in his brown eyes. “So...basically, what you’re saying is that Jisung and I are both here for holes, and I get more attention because mine is bigger than his?”

“Well...yes?”

“That,” he began. “Is the stupidest thing I’ve heard in my life. I wish that girl had poked a few more in me so that I wouldn’t have been awake to hear it.” He promptly pulled his blanket up to his chin and closed his eyes, falling asleep within seconds. Chan smiled at him and looked at Jisung in the other chair, nodding off himself.

“Go to sleep, Jisung. I’ll watch over everything.”

“Mmm,” he hummed. “G’night, Channie-hyung...thank ya’.”

“You did well, Sung. I’m proud of you.”

“Mmm.”

“Goodnight.”

Someday, these boys would be the death of him.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comment if you'd like!  
> Also, if you're physically able, old enough, and don't have a fear of needles, please consider donating blood! (special bonus points if you're recovered from Covid-19 because you have 👏antibodies👏 in your plasma). You can donate once every 8 weeks. You'll help others, get some good snacks from the donation center, get a free mini-health check up, and even earn rewards! (my donation center gives me gift cards on occasion, and I earn points towards their t-shirt store).
> 
> ...this sounds like a paid promotion. I swear it's not. Donating blood is just a good way to give back. Have a good day y'all!


End file.
